Last Moment Things

Every time whenever I have to visit my native, I have to catch bus/train from the centre of Bangalore, i.e., Majestic. It is almost nearly 25Km far from my place. Generally, I always visit my native over the weekend, so Friday evening is the vital time for me to take this quarter century Kms journey from my place to the heart of city.

As true as water is blue is so true about crazy Bangalore traffic. Especially over the start of weekend (on Friday) towards Majestic. And by any chance, if that weekend is a long weekend due to some festival, then you better take off from work on that day and leave home in the afternoon to reach Majestic. The traffic is literally Jammed. To add cherry on the top of cake, if by any chance, during long weekend of festival on Friday, it had rained heavily in Bangalore then listen to me and go back to your home in Bangalore and celebrate the festival over Skype with your family in native than dreaming to reach Majestic.

Even though being fully aware of this above situation of Bangalore traffic on Friday evenings, I never bother to make an habit of leaving early in the evening. I am not sure, why it always so happens that, I leave late from home and have this constant fear and tension of whether will I reach Majestic on time or not. Will I be able to catch Rani Chennamma train or not. Will I be able to reach on time to Anand Rao Circle or not. Will my bus wait for extra 15mins for me.

The journey of this 25Kms is so stressful that if you succeed reaching somehow on time to catch the bus/train then the rest of 450Kms feels nothing in front of it. The real challenge is not getting tired of 450Kms journey to native but this tiny 25Kms journey in Bangalore.

I have been constantly scolded by others on making last moment to train/bus and sometimes I wonder myself as why can't I just leave early and avoid this all worry of possibility of missing train/bus. I keep getting different explanation in my vicious head every time I puzzle myself with this question.

The thing is, after crossing all of this painful stress and tension of last moment things, finally when you make-up to the destination to catch the bus/train, the feeling which is felt at that moment is priceless. The winning moment. When you are so desperate to somehow reach majestic on time, the only thing that matters to you in that moment is to reach their on time. All your other small & silly worries won't take any weight. The only goal is to reach the destination somehow. By hook or crook. You look at time and traffic outside on road and take precious decisions on how to optimize and reach the destination on time. That thrill of race against the time is wonderful.

For times, I have optimized my path from home to majestic are in-numerous. Taking cab from here till next 5Kms, from their catch bus till another 10Kms, then catch auto to near-by oneway road, walk from that point till next point from where I can catch another auto again etc. All this circus is to avoid traffic and save the precious time against which I would be racing. My end goal is to reach the destination in that stipulated amount of time. You need to be precise and very quick on taking decision on the toe. If you skip few mins in taking decision, traffic might pile up and you have to come up with another short-cut route. The tentative moment to decide on something and stick to it challenges me and their is some kind of fun in that. Probably, thats why, I inherently and unintentionally+intentionally push the things to last moment.

But last week was tip of the toe moment. The race against time was so delicate that, even every seconds were mattering. The peak of tension and stress was unbelievable. The Rani Chennamma train from Majestic was at sharp 9:15PM. I thought of travelling my metro train. Even though, I left two & half hours early (around 6:45PM), I was stuck in KR Puram traffic and reached Metro station at 8:25PM. By the time I took ticket in Metro station and ran towards catching Metro, I was delayed by 3 seconds and those bloody automatic metro doors closed right in front of me and I couldn't do anything. I quickly consulted guard standing there about the next metro and it was at 8:45PM and he said it would take approx 25-30mins to reach Majestic. So essentially 9:15 train GONE!!!

Sitting idle in metro station for 15mins, I started to think the importance of 3 seconds. The possibility of catching Rani Chennama train was impossible and was thinking of some alternate Bus. I deeply thought and promised to myself that from next time onwards, lets never allow for these last moment things to happen. Lets always manage to leave early. In the past six and half years of my stay in Bangalore, I had never missed booked ticket go waste by not travelling. I always somehow had managed to win the race against time, but this time I was feeling it was impossible.

At sharp 8:45PM, Metro left towards Majestic. I kept sadly looking at time on my iPhone. The clock was ticking towards 9PM. Somehow, I was cheerful to see that, metro was nearing Majestic and it was almost nearing 9:05PM. Thanks to prompt timely deliver of metro operation that at 9:10 sharp (25mins travel) I was in Majestic metro railway station. My hopes came back and started to run towards platform no. 8. Those 5mins, I ran like anything. If I had run this fast in my school race competition, I would have gathered first prize.

Exactly at 9:15, I managed to reach the platform where Rani Chennamma was standing. I couldn't control my happiness. With heavy breathing, I proudly stepped inside the coach and train immediately started to move! UFFFFF... as though it was just waiting for me to get in ;)

The amount of kick or joy which I get after winning against time is marvellous but on the other hand the tension, stress and fear till I reach my destination is also equally horrible. Its similar to your savings money. If you want fixed small returns for your savings, then deposit in FD but if you want greater returns for you savings then invest in stock market. FD is risk free where you get small constant interest rate while stock market is volatile and risk prone but returns are damn heavy and match with your amount of risk.

Lets see how early I would be leaving on my next visit to my native (on June 10th Friday). I won't be surprised if again the "last moment things" would repeat afterall promises are made to be broken ;)

PS: My record of "never missing to travel in pre-booked ticket" still holds good :)